Los Angeles Class Decommissioning

American News

The end of May saw a lot of submarine news within the US Navy with the decommissioning of two Los Angeles class boats, USS Dallas and USS Buffalo.

Both vessels will have their nuclear cores removed before the rest of the submarines are recycled.

Meanwhile, USS Washington, the 14th member of the Virginia class nuclear powered hunter killer submarines, was delivered to the US Navy in late May, following extensive sea trials. The submarine is the eighth of the class to be built to the so called Block III design which features two Virginia Payload Tubes which is able to launch a volley of six Tomahawk cruise missiles each.

Canadian News

The keel for the future HMCS Margaret Brooke was laid down at Halifax Shipyard of Irving Shipbuilding in late May. The new ship will be one of the Canadian Navy’s new Harry DeWolf class Arctic offshore patrol ships (AOPS). The new ship is named after RCN Nursing sister Margaret Brooke, who served with the navy in World War Two.

The Quebec based shipyard Chantier Davie’s work on converting a former Greek container ship into an interim auxiliary oiler replenishment for the Royal Canadian Navy was, at the time of writing, drawing to a close.

The conversion was deemed necessary following the withdrawal from service of the navy’s pair of Protecteur class oilers in 2014 and the hiring of the Chilean Navy’s Almirante Montt and a pair of Spanish vessels Patino and Cantabria.

Australian News

The future shape of the Royal Australian Navy was on show on 16 June when Australia’s Minister for Defence Industry, Christopher Pyne MP, attended a ceremony to provisionally accept the first Air Warfare Destroyer HMAS Hobart into the fleet.

HMAS Hobart (pictured) is the first of three similar vessels that will provide air defence for the Australian fleet.

South Korean News

The vessel has a full load displacement of 4,240 tonnes and was built at the companies Ulsan shipyard. The Nampo is a significant enhancement of the Republic of Korea Navy’s mine warfare capabilities and is based on the Future Frigate Experimental design which boasts a flight deck and hanger capable of accommodating a medium sized helicopter.

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